Elevator Talk Series
by hot4booth
Summary: This is a collection of one-shot scenes in the BAU's elevator. I love Hotch and Rossi talking in the elevator, but some the one-shots may have other characters. #3  Long-Distance  - This Hotch/Rossi drabble takes place in season 8 when the dynamics of Hotch & Beth's relationship changes.
1. Crime Fiction

**Disclaimer:** Criminal Minds and its affiliated characters do not belong to me. I mean no copyright infringement.

**Summary:** This is going to be the first of a collection of one-shot scenes in the BAU's elevator. I love Hotch and Rossi talking in the elevator, but all of the one-shots won't be about them.

**Author's Note:** This was written for the Criminal Minds Weekly Prompts for week 9. You can find them in the Criminal Minds forums.

**Elevator Talk Series**

**#1 Crime Fiction**

Reminiscent of a few weeks earlier when Rossi interrogated Hotch about Beth, Rossi hopped on the elevator in the last seconds before the doors closed and then gave his friend an once-over. Something was definitely going on. Thankfully, they were alone and David Rossi always gets the answers he wants.

Hotch on the other hand was more than ready to handle Rossi. He had learned well from his friend and he was going to play his game as long as he could.

"What's got you so cheery this morning?" asked Rossi. "Didn't spend the night alone?"

Hotch rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Rossi's eyebrows shot up. _Did Aaron knock his head on the bathroom wall a little too hard during shower sex? _

"Because you're stuck living vicariously through the stories of others."

Rossi snorted. "I do fine," he defended. "Besides, I have a lifetime of memories to hold on to."

"Obviously. Very colorful, too."

"I've certainly never been vanilla."

"That was made very clear."

"What? I never suspected you to be one to listen to gossip, Aaron."

The elevator doors opened and he responded as he walked out. "And you were right not to suspect it of me," he revealed without giving away anything because of his practiced stoic expression.

"Whoa! Wait up there. You can't be cryptic about my sex life and then just walk away."

"I don't think this is the time or place to talk about it. Enough people enjoy talking about your escapades. We don't need to encourage them."

Hotch wasn't sure, but he thought Rossi actually growled in dissatisfaction. He followed him down the corridor by-passing his own office.

"I know way more than I should. At least I didn't have to see it. The mental pictures were disturbing enough. But it was very educational," he offered once he was in his office.

He left Rossi standing in the doorway with his jaw dropped. It wasn't a look often seen on the man.

Hotch got right to work looking to see if he had any time sensitive messages.

**~~~ Flashback Begins ~~~**

_Although Hotch was improving with working less extra hours, he was the last one to leave that evening. He only needed to deliver a handful of files on cold cases to Rossi and the present time was better than the next day when he would surely be in his office to complain. _

_He didn't even bother turning on the lights in his office. When he set the files on his desk, his arm accidentally bumped his keyboard waking up the monitor. Hotch always shut down his computer at night. It saved energy. He would have to have a talk with his best friend, maybe the whole team. Actually, it would only require a quick memo by email. His computer was shut down for the night, but he could quickly send it from Rossi's computer so he wouldn't forget. All he needed to do was log in and out of his account. But before that could happen, he was distracted by what was on the screen in a word document._

**~~~ Flashback Ends ~~~**

Around noon, Rossi reappeared at the open door of Hotch's office. "Time for lunch?" he asked.

Without even looking up, Hotch declined. "No, I have too much to do."

"You've got to eat, Aaron."

"I will. I have some fruit and vegetables I can snack on."

Rossi snorted. "That's hardly enough. Those files are not going anywhere. They're not growing legs."

"They could grow in other ways, like into a larger pile." Hotch remained unaffected by Rossi's reasoning.

"You'll survive. Get your coat on. We're going."

Hotch glared at him.

"My treat." Rossi gave him his best pleading grin.

"You do know that I'm the boss here?"

"I have a right to be bossy right now. You're hiding something."

"I have nothing to hide. Apparently, soon you won't either."

"That's enough. We're going to lunch and you're telling me what the hell you're talking about. I have done nothing worth all of this secrecy."

The elevator dinged its arrival and they entered the crowded box of metal. Hotch stared straight ahead while looking out the corner of his eye and noticed that Rossi was staring at him.

Surprisingly, Rossi said nothing during the drive and only made small talk until after they ordered.

"Okay," began Rossi calmly. "Out with it. What big news flash are you not telling me about?"

"I imagine a lot of females would find it newsworthy," Hotch replied with a smirk.

Rossi glared at his humored friend before sighing in temporary resignation. "Fine. Whenever you're ready."

Rossi raised his water glass to his mouth and started to drink. Hotch found his moment.

"The Case of the Scorned Mistresses?"

Rossi choked on his water, spitting it out making a mess of himself and the table in front of him.

"What?" Rossi asked with wide eyes. It was possible that he could actually be blushing.

"Crime Fiction, Dave? Seriously?"


	2. Up all Night?

**Disclaimer:** Criminal Minds and its affiliated characters do not belong to me. I mean no copyright infringement.

**Summary:** This is a collection of one-shot scenes in the BAU's elevator. This short one is about Hotch and Rossi and uses a Criminal Minds Weekly Prompt for July: Your character has an embarrassing accident at home that results in a trip to the ER. What gets revealed? This story takes place sometime shortly before the season seven finale.

**Elevator Talk Series**

**#2 – Up all Night?**

Hotch groaned when as the elevator doors were just about to close, Rossi appeared and walked in just in time. These rides never bid well for him. His friend was just too nosy.

But instead of the usual smirking, frustrating man he was used to, he was getting silence. He looked over at Rossi and tried to figure out what was different.

"Not get enough sleep last night?" he asked.

"Nope," was all Rossi said.

Hotch smiled a little. It was his turn to interrogate.

"Really? Working out, playing or both?"

Rossi finally turned to look at Hotch. "Neither. Although that had been the plans." The mischievous smile and glint in his eyes appeared momentarily.

Hotch furrowed his brows. "To keep to my promise not to profile you, even though you don't keep to that same promise, just tell me what kept you awake all night."

Rossi lifted an arm and Hotch saw what he hadn't noticed before. His left hand, arm and wrist were wrapped in an ace bandage.

"I'm happy to see that you'll still be able to get all your paper work done seeing as your right handed."

Rossi groaned. He wasn't sure about that with how tired he was.

"I'm assuming you went to the E.R. and that's what kept you up late."

"What's with the interrogation?" Rossi asked in annoyance.

"As Morgan likes to say, "Paybacks are a bitch."

Rossi chuckled good naturedly despite his condition.

"Are you going to tell me how this happened?" Hotch asked as they stepped off of the elevator on their floor.

"I fell," he muttered in embarrassment.

"Either something distracted you or you're getting old," Hotch said with a straight face, although he was struggling to keep it that way.

Rossi glared at him.

Hotch ignored him. "Since you admitted that your original plans involved working out and playing, being distracted by a woman must have been what happened. Was it missing the bed when attempting to fall on it? Maybe you ran into furniture trying to get to the bedroom? Did you fall down some stairs?"

"That's enough," Rossi growled when he noticed all the eyes that were on them.

Hotch finally broke out the smile he'd been holding in. "I have a lot to make up for. We're not done talking about this. Lunch?"

Rossi didn't answer. Instead he left Hotch standing at the door to his office as he continued on to his own. _God help me_. _Maybe we'll get a case_.

Rossi got his wish. An urgent case came directly to Hotch's attention from Strauss and the team was immediately called to the conference room. Unfortunately for him, things were about to get worse.

**~oOo~**

Hotch heard a knock on his door and looked up. He cringed inwardly when he saw that it was Strauss. But then he noticed the sling and cast on her arm and wrist and his eyebrows went up automatically before he realized it.

"What?" asked Strauss with her piercing eyes and poker face.

"Nothing really," Hotch quickly said. He nodded towards her cast. "That must be recent."

"Just yesterday," he face softened a little. "I can't decide if I want to take the pain pills and be drowsy or just suffer with the pain."

He nodded his understanding without revealing any of his unanswered questions. "Do you have a case for us?" he quickly diverted their attention before he said anything stupid.

"Yes, it's an urgent one that came directly to me this morning."

She sat down and went over the details that they had so far. When they were done, Hotch asked, "Will you be joining us this time?"

"The director would like for me to join you for the briefing the team, but he understands my reluctance for field work at this time," she said glancing at her arm. "I'd like to stay in frequent contact for updates."

"Of course."

**~oOo~**

Hotch quickly called the team into the conference room and then intercepted Rossi at his office door. "You have a lot of explaining to do."

He sighed. However, he didn't know the extent of Hotch's words until Strauss entered the conference room. His eyes momentarily went wide and he quickly glanced at Hotch. _Yup, he figured it out_. His cheeks felt slightly flushed. _When was the last time that happened?_ From watching Strauss, he guessed that she was unaware that they had been discovered. He wasn't sure if he wanted her in the field which would possibly cause the others to realize what their duo injuries meant or having her stay at Quantico giving Hotch more time to give him hell.

He took a deep breath and sighed. Why didn't he ever learn to be careful what he wished for? The next few days were going to be more painful than he expected.

* * *

><p>I'm having fun turning the tables on Rossi. Soon, I'll have to go back to Rossi teasing Hotch though.<p> 


	3. Long Distance

**Disclaimer:** Criminal Minds and its affiliated characters do not belong to me. I mean no copyright infringement.

**Summary:** This is a collection of one-shot scenes in the BAU's elevator. This little drabble takes place in season 8 when the dynamics of Hotch & Beth's relationship changes.

**Elevator Talk Series**

**#3 – Long-Distance**

Rossi jumped on the elevator just as the doors started to close.

"You look like crap," Rossi observed of his friend. "Something must be lacking in the bedroom."

"Dave," Hotch warned with a stern look.

"What? I'm concerned."

Hotch snorted.

"Once upon a time, I was used to you being a little bit frustrated. Now I have to get used to you being a little bit frustrated and tired. When was the last time you saw her?"

"A month," mumbled Hotch.

"It's been a month already? I thought this gig was supposed to be 3 weeks, tops."

Hotch took a deep breath and sighed before looking at Rossi. "It was. They've convinced her to stay longer."

Rossi's brows furrowed in real concern. "How much longer?"

The elevator dinged announcing the arrival of their floor.

"They want her to stay permanently."

"Well, is she…"

Hotch interrupted him. "Look Dave, I really don't want to talk about this right now."

_Damn,_ thought Rossi. _I practically talked him into this relationship. There's no way I'm going to abandon him when he needs a friend_.

_**One week later…**_

"Have you and Beth decided how her job is going to affect your relationship now that she is officially moving?"

"What do you mean?" Hotch asked bewildered.

"Aaron, she lives hundreds of miles away and our job has us away from DC too much of the time already."

"Exactly. She's put up with my traveling. I'm not about to dump her for making a great career move."

"I liked that about her. She was very accepting and tolerant of your job, but now is different. You're never in the same city."

"Unless her city gets a serial killer," he tried to lighten the discussion.

Rossi grunted his disapproval.

"We're both fine with the long-distance. We're comfortable with each other. We'll figure out how to make it work."

"Comfortable? It's supposed to be about love," Rossi said incredulously.

"I'm almost 50. Comfortable is a good thing."

"You deserve more."

The elevator dinged.

"Says the man who is comfortable with his casual relationship with Erin," jabbed Hotch.

"That's different," claimed Rossi as Hotch walked off.

Hotch shook his head and rolled his eyes.

_It really is different, Hotch,_ thought Rossi. _I've been divorced three times, I don't have a kid and I didn't promise my late wife to love again_.

* * *

><p>I know this one was more serious. There will be more humor coming. I find these two to be quite amusing!<p>

Thank you for your review! **– CMCity, TheCompositionNotebook, ficdirectory, kc1997kc, Whiitewolf, p95000, Danzjaron, Kimd33, judithya88, angel1983, Claire Randall Fraser, omgnotagain, Hotly81173** and two guests! You are very appreciated!

**~oOo~**

The 2012 PROFILER'S CHOICE CRIMINAL MINDS AWARDS ballot has been posted on the Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum. Nominations are being accepted from September 1, 2012 – October 15, 2012. Please be careful to follow all the rules to make your nominations count ;)


End file.
